Full Vowels–Reduced Vowels

Although stress is the topic we will discuss later, there is one issue that we will take up here, and this relates to reduced vowels. While all vowels of English (except [ə]) can occur in stressed syllables, many of these vowels reveal alternations with an [ə] in unstressed syllables in a morphologically related word.

We should immediately point out, however, that a vowel’s appearance in an unstressed syllable does not necessarily result in a reduced vowel [ə]. It is perfectly possible for the English vowels to appear in full (unreduced) form in unstressed syllables (or in syllables with secondary stress), as shown in the following:

Thus, the unidirectional generalization to be made is the following: while a reduced vowel is necessarily in an unstressed syllable, a vowel in an unstressed syllable is not necessarily reduced.

Although we have consistently used [ə] in reduced syllables, it is not uncommon to find an [ɪ] in people’s speech. That is, for a word such as implication we can get [ɪmplɪkeʃən] as well as [ɪmpləkeʃən]. In general, [ɪ] is found before palato-alveolars (e.g. selfish [sεlfɪʃ], sandwich [sændwɪtʃ], marriage [mæɹ̣ɪʤ]) and velars (e.g. metric [mεtɹ̣ɪk], running [ɹ̣ Λ n ɪ ŋ]). It should be noted, however, that the syllable structure is also a factor. The influence of palate-alveolar/velar consonants is more visible when there is tautosyllabicity. For example, we tend to find [ɪ] in topic [tɑpɪk], which is likely to change to an [ə] in a related word such as topical [tɑpəkəl], because the velar, [k], is the onset of the following syllable. Individuals should check their pronunciation of such syllables and transcribe the vowels accordingly. However, since reduced syllables are necessarily unstressed, and [ə] cannot appear in a stressed syllable (but [ɪ] can), we encourage our students to use [ə] for such vowels, for practical reasons.

We should also point out that [ə], besides having this relationship with the unstressed [ɪ], has a special relationship with three other vowels, /i, o, u/. In unstressed syllables, the range of pronunciation values of these three vowels extends to the central [ə] area, as shown in the following:

اخر الاخبار

اخبار العتبة العباسية المقدسة

بذكرى شهادته.. جموع الزائرين تشيع النعش الرمزي للإمام الكاظم (عليه السلام) عند مرقده الطاهر في بغداد

العتبة العباسية المقدسة تنظم مجلس عزاء بذكرى شهادة الإمام الكاظم (عليه السلام)

جموع المؤمنين تشيّع النعش الرمزي للإمام الكاظم (عليه السلام) عند العتبتين المقدستين

شعبة التوجيه الديني النسوي تنظم مسابقة ميدانية بذكرى شهادة الإمام الكاظم (عليه السلام)

المزيد

الآخبار الصحية

الخبز الأسمر أم الأبيض.. أيهما أفضل لضبط سكر الدم؟

عقاقير التخسيس و"الانتحار".. الحكومة الأميركية تحسم الجدل

الهرم الغذائي الجديد.. لماذا يعد "انقلابا" في خارطة الطعام؟

لحماية ظهرك وقلبك في آن واحد.. ما وضعية النوم الصحيحة؟

المزيد

الآخبار التكنلوجية

كيف يعزز الضوء الطبيعي تفكيرك وانتباهك خلال اليوم

سابقة.. طاقم من محطة الفضاء الدولية يعود إلى الأرض مبكرا

منصات التواصل تضرّ بنفسية المراهقين… والفتيات الأكثر تأثرا

ابتكار ألماني قد يغيّر مستقبل صناعة البلاستيك

المزيد

مواضيع ذات صلة

Spelling and Pronunciation SUMMARY

American English vs. British English

Morphological Basis of English Spelling

Phoneme–Grapheme Correspondences in English Vowels

Phoneme–Grapheme Correspondences in English Consonants

Spelling and Pronunciation Irregularity of English Spelling

Structural Factors in Second Language Phonology SUMMARY

Perception

Optimality Theory (OT)

Ontogeny Phylogeny Model (OPM)

Markedness

Hypercontrast